Week Three: And...

Low and behold, it is now the third week and I can already tell a major difference in my aquarium! There are numerous of tiny paramecium floating and weaving their way around my aquarium, as well as a few Euplotes--another type of protozoa with cilia attached. Therefore, I had to reduce the amount of light that I was using so that they would not move out of my range of view. I was also able to find an organism that I believe to be a peranema. It is a type of protozoa with flagella attached to it. There was also another unidentifiable object that I had, that I believe to have been a Midge, a type of insect larvae.

Week Two Continued...

Dr. McFarland sent us an email about our Beta Food that was added to our microaquariums after I made my last post. Here is the information about the additives that were included in the aquarium.  "Atison's Betta Food" made by Ocean Nutrition, Aqua Pet Americas, 3528 West 500 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84104. Ingredients: Fish meal, wheat flower, soy meal, krill meal, minerals, vitamins and preservatives. Analysis: Crude Protein 36%; Crude fat 4.5%; Crude Fiber 3.5%; Moisture 8% and Ash 15%.

Week Two: Observations

Week two already, and time to make my first observations since beginning this project outside of the initial setup. I have already noticed several changes to my microaquarium, being that there are different organisms and more movement in the microaquarium. One of the first things that I noticed was Vorticella. Dr. McFarland helped me to identify this. This organism is a protozoa that has a very vaselike structure with cilia attached to it. I also noticed a difflugia. This had a very unique shape to it. It almost looked like a spore, with the hole taken out of it. Below, I have attached all of the organisms that I have discovered as well as a picture of my microaquarium.

First week--MicroAquarium Setup

This past Tuesday (October 12, 2010), I set up my MicroAquarium for my term project. I was given a glass tank, a stand holder, and lid. I then placed three colored dots on the top left corner of the tank: one for my lab section (red), one for my lab table (blue), and the other for my seat (blue). I then proceeded to fill 1/3 of the tank with mostly water--from the bottom, top and middle layers of the source--and a little dirt at the bottom from water source 4, which is from the Holston River along John Sevier Hwy under the I-40 Bridge here in Knoxville, TN. Also in my tank, I placed one plant source and an algae source, so that any living organism found in my microaquarium could survive. Above is a photo courtesy of Ken McFarland of where my source was taken from.

After setting up my microaquarium, I briefly looked at it under a microscope to look for any living organisms and to get familiar with what was going on in the aquarium. Until the end of November, I will periodically checking on my microaquarium and looking for the following items: living/non living organisms, single-celled and/or multi cellular organisms, chlorophyll green and non-green organisms, habitat occurrences, and an overall trend. I will update this blog at least once a week to record my observations, notes and other thoughts relating to this project.

SOURCE: McFarland, Ken. "Botany 111 2010". http://botany1112010.blogspot.com/ 4 October, 2010. Web.